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Matjaž Perc

Publications and source records attributed to Matjaž Perc.

22 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Eco-evolutionary dynamics of cooperation in the presence of policing

Ecology and evolution are inherently linked, and studying a mathematical model that considers both holds promise of insightful discoveries related to the dynamics of cooperation. In the present article, we use the prisoner's dilemma (PD) game as a basis for long-term apprehension of the essential social dilemma related to cooperation among unrelated individuals. We upgrade the contemporary PD game with an inclusion of evolution-induced act of punishment as a third competing strategy in addition to the traditional cooperators and defectors. In a population structure, the abundance of ecologically-viable free space often regulates the reproductive opportunities of the constituents. Hence, additionally, we consider the availability of free space as an ecological footprint, thus arriving at a simple eco-evolutionary model, which displays fascinating complex dynamics. As possible outcomes, we report the individual dominance of cooperators and defectors as well as a plethora of mixed states, where different strategies coexist followed by maintaining the diversity in a socio-ecological framework. These states can either be steady or oscillating, whereby oscillations are sustained by cyclic dominance among different combinations of cooperators, defectors, and punishers. We also observe a novel route to cyclic dominance where cooperators, punishers, and defectors enter a coexistence via an inverse Hopf bifurcation that is followed by an inverse period doubling route.

q-bio.PE↗

Chaos in a predator-prey-based mathematical model for illicit drug consumption

Recently, a mathematical model describing the illicit drug consumption in a population consisting of drug users and non-users has been proposed. The model describes the dynamics of non-users, experimental users, recreational users, and addict users within a population. The aim of this work is to propose a modified version of this model by analogy with the classical predator-prey models, in particular considering non-users as prey and users as predator. Hence, our model includes a stabilizing effect of the growth rate of the prey, and a destabilizing effect of the predator saturation. Functional responses of Verhulst and of Holling type II have been used for modeling these effects. To forecast the marijuana consumption in the states of Colorado and Washington, we used data from Hanley (2013) and a genetic algorithm to calibrate the parameters in our model. Assuming that the population of non-users increases in proportion with the demography, and following the seminal works of Sir Robert May (1976), we use the growth rate of non-users as the main bifurcation parameter. For the state of Colorado, the model first exhibits a limit cycle, which agrees quite accurately with the reported periodic data in Hanley (2013). By further increasing the growth rate of non-users, the population then enters into two chaotic regions, within which the evolution of the variables becomes unpredictable. For the state of Washington, the model also exhibits a periodic solution, which is again in good agreement with observed data. A chaotic region for Washington is likewise observed in the bifurcation diagram. Our research confirms that mathematical models can be a useful tool for better understanding illicit drug consumption, and for guiding policy-makers towards more effective policies to contain this epidemic.

math.DS↗

Is type 1 diabetes a chaotic phenomenon?

A database of ten type 1 diabetes patients wearing a continuous glucose monitoring device has enabled to record their blood glucose continuous variations every minute all day long during fourteen consecutive days. These recordings represent, for each patient, a time series consisting of 1 value of glycaemia per minute during 24 hours and 14 days, i.e., 20,160 data point. Thus, while using numerical methods, these time series have been anonymously analyzed. Nevertheless, because of the stochastic inputs induced by daily activities of any human being, it has not been possible to discriminate chaos from noise. So, we have decided to keep only the 14 nights of these ten patients. Then, the determination of the time delay and embedding dimension according to the delay coordinate embedding method has allowed us to estimate for each patient the correlation dimension and the maximal Lyapunov exponent. This has led us to show that type 1 diabetes could indeed be a chaotic phenomenon. Once this result has been confirmed by the determinism test, we have computed the Lyapunov time and found that the limit of predictability of this phenomenon is nearly equal to half the 90-minutes sleep-dream cycle. We hope that our results will prove to be useful to characterize and predict blood glucose variations.

q-bio.OT↗

Evoplex: A platform for agent-based modeling on networks

Agent-based modeling and network science have been used extensively to advance our understanding of emergent collective behavior in systems that are composed of a large number of simple interacting individuals or agents. With the increasing availability of high computational power in affordable personal computers, dedicated efforts to develop multi-threaded, scalable and easy-to-use software for agent-based simulations are needed more than ever. Evoplex meets this need by providing a fast, robust and extensible platform for developing agent-based models and multi-agent systems on networks. Each agent is represented as a node and interacts with its neighbors, as defined by the network structure. Evoplex is ideal for modeling complex systems, for example in evolutionary game theory and computational social science. In Evoplex, the models are not coupled to the execution parameters or the visualization tools, and there is a user-friendly graphical interface which makes it easy for all users, ranging from newcomers to experienced, to create, analyze, replicate and reproduce the experiments.

cs.MA↗